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Closing Bell

ESPN's Rob Parker Catching Heat For Comments On Robert Griffin III

ESPN’s Rob Parker is getting heat for some comments he made today in reference to Redskins QB Robert Griffin III. Parker was on the net’s “First Take” this morning when the topic of Griffin not wanting to be defined by his race was brought up. Parker said, “This throws up a red flag when I keep hearing … a black guy kind of distancing himself away from black people.” Parker then asked, “Is he a brother or is he a cornball brother?” He explained that Griffin is “black” but he is “not really down with the cause, he’s not one of us. He’s kind of black but he’s not the guy you really want to hang out with.”

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said he does not “judge someone’s blackness” based on whether he wears braids in his hair or the race of his fiancée, which was discussed earlier in the segment. ESPN’s Cari Champion said to Parker, “You can’t take a bit of his comments here and there and put them all together and assert he is distancing himself from being African-American” (“First Take,” ESPN2, 12/13).

KCSP-AM's Robert Ford wrote on his Twitter feed, "Stuff like Rob Parker's take on RGIII really irritate me. The idea that someone has to prove his/her blackness is absurd and myopic." MSNBC's Jamil Smith: "The notion that anyone can serve as an arbiter of someone's blackness really needs to go away." CBS Sports' Bruce Feldman tweeted, "Whoa. Maybe we should go back to Tebow stuff again."

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

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SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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